MA beats MCI, advances to final

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BANGOR – Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln has built its success this season around tough man-to-man defense.

Wednesday night, the Lynx turned to zones to contend with the quickness of Maine Central Institute guard Troy Murray.

Fourth-seeded Mattanawcook was a bit sluggish early, but held the No. 8 Huskies to four fourth-quarter points to pull out a 59-46 Eastern Maine Class B boys basketball semifinal victory in front of 2,750 fans at the Bangor Auditorium.

Coach Rick Sinclair’s Lynx (17-4) advance to Saturday’s 3:35 p.m. regional title game against No. 3 Camden Hills (18-3), a 64-58 winner over Ellsworth in Wednesday’s first semifinal.

MA used a combination of 2-3 and 1-2-2 zone defenses to bottle up the upset-minded Huskies of Pittsfield (15-6) in the fourth quarter. The Lynx then responded by scoring 25 points to erase an eight-point deficit.

“In the fourth quarter we really buckled down and got a lot of stops and made foul shots down the stretch,” Sinclair said, “… and managed to beat a pretty good team tonight.”

MCI senior guard Troy Murray used his explosive quickness to shred the Lynx’s zone defense for 19 first-half points on 9-for-9 shooting. However, he wound up with only four points after the break and was 2-for-7 from the field.

“Our whole game plan was to keep him out of the paint and he got in the paint all first half,” said MA junior guard Derek Libbey, who poured in a game-high 25 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

“We sagged a little bit more, we played a little bit better team defense, kept them out of the paint, and forced them to shoot some outside shots,” he added of the second-half effort.

MA on Tuesday had put in its 1-2-2 zone, which was a bit more effective at preventing Murray from finding gaps in which to attack off the dribble.

“We just had to tighten things up a little bit,” Sinclair said. “Generally, we don’t play zone and we started [the game in] zone.”

The Lynx trailed 42-34 going into the fourth, but put it all together in the final eight minutes.

Down 43-39, junior center Tyler White (10 points) ignited a key 10-0 flurry with a turnaround from the low block. Libbey followed with a bucket from the lane.

MA took the lead for good when White scored from underneath off a Shey Gardner pass with 3:50 left, then added an eight-foot jumper a minute later to make it 49-43 Lynx.

“Tyler White. Game MVP for us today,” Libbey said. “He was huge.”

MCI struggled, going 1-for-12 from the floor in the fourth quarter. MA made eight of 10 free throws in the last minute to put the game away.

Brady Vose scored 14 points and snared six boards, while White tallied eight points in the pivotal fourth quarter.

MA outrebounded MCI 32-24, grabbing a 20-12 advantage in the second half. The Lynx also converted 12 of 16 foul shots in the contest while the Huskies went 5-for-11.

Murray finished with 23 points, three assists and three steals to pace the Huskies. Benson Mensah-Bonsu added seven points and Hunter Nichols posted four assists for MCI.

LYNX 59, HUSKIES 46

MCI (15-6) Mattanawcook (17-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Nichols 2 14 0 0 4 Gardner 1 5 2

Murray 11 16 0 1 23 Libbey 9 18 25

Jones 0 0 0 0 0 Vose 5 9 14

Mens-Bns 2 7 3 6 7 Smith 1 2 4

McGrady 0 3 0 0 0 White 4 5 10

Quint 2 7 1 2 5 Young 1 2 2

Sidelinger 2 3 1 2 5 Langevin 1 2

Morton 1 2 0 0 2

Totals 20 52 5 11 46 Totals 22 42 12 16 59

MCI 16 25 42 46

Mattanawcook 10 27 34 59

3-pt. goals – MCI (1-9): Murray 1-1, McGrady 0-3, Nichols 0-5; Mattanawcook (3-12): Libbey 2-7, Vose 1-2, Gardner 0-2, Smith 0-1